Blessed Or Seduced

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. Would you please bow with me and ask God's grace in hearing His word. Father, we dare not enter into the understanding of Your word until we come to You because we are utterly dependent upon you and your spirit to open up the text of the word of God and not just give us understandings of the word, but understandings of our own hearts.

And Lord, not just our individual hearts, for these are not meant for us as individuals necessarily. These messages are meant for us as a congregation. So in your mercy, we ask that you would help us to think not merely of ourselves, but as these words are preached, you would help us to think of our course as a congregation. Enlighten our minds, we pray.

Father, every one of these messages, these seven churches has been intended for us. There are seeds of each one of these, if not the full-blown fruit, found here in this congregation, the things that we have read. We pray that you would give us grace to understand and then to respond in appropriate ways to what your word says. Lord, this is serious business.

We don't want to do this lightly. So give us ears to hear because we want to please you. Our heart's desire is to please the one who redeemed us by his own blood and who is the Lord of this congregation. Help us now. In Jesus' name, amen. A week ago Thursday, Beck and I were down in Kettering, Ohio, near Dayton, and walking through a rather rich, well-heeled neighborhood.

In order to get where we had to be, we had to walk through a church parking lot past this one rather immense yet beautiful church. The parking lot was nice. highest quality blacktop all the parking spaces neatly painted The architecture of the building was impressive and pleasing to the eye and it was made entirely of brick. And it was obvious that they had added to this church a number of times, and the brick all matched.

Walking past the building, you could make out what was the original sanctuary, the second sanctuary and the third and largest one. Lush well manicured lawns surrounded the building and its parking lot and there wasn't, I mean there was not one bare spot in all of that grass. In the grass there was a playground and take my word for it it wasn't one of those cheap plastic slide kind of a things it was really nice playground equipment and over here were some nice picnic tables and right there in the middle was this really nice gazebo.

And I think you women might use the term cute in describing it. Over it all was this rich canopy of leaves from these tall, mature trees. Now I'd imagine that if we went into that building, we would find it comparably equipped. I'll bet they have the best sound system. you could imagine with the latest in PowerPoint technology. I would guess that the sanctuary would be tastefully done, that the ceilings were wonderful, and the pulpit was probably better than anything you could possibly imagine.

I would guess that their singles group probably has a great budget, and they do a lot of stuff together, and their youth group probably has one section of the church to themselves, along with their own pastor. And I would also guess, looking at the size of the building, that it had a huge pastoral staff that could meet anyone's needs. Now, as you look at a church like that, you might be...

As you look at a church like that, you want to ask this question. I think it's a real important question. What would you say about that church? I think all of us might say, Wow, look at how God has blessed that ministry. You look at all that stuff and you imagine all the things that God has given. You say wow look at how God has blessed that ministry And maybe He has But you know what There another possibility It would also be possible that the Lord of the church, Jesus Himself would exclaim, this church makes me so sick, I just want to vomit.

Now that's what Jesus said about the church in Laodicea. And He says it to any congregation that is more enamored with its wealth than with Jesus. Let's follow along. Let's look at the text again. In Revelation 3, beginning in verse 14, the last of these seven messages to the churches to whom this book was written. And to the angel of the church and laity, see you write the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. And that word spit there literally is vomit. For you say, I am rich.

I have prospered and I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. It is entirely possible that rather than being blessed, a congregation with rich resources may instead be seduced.

By this message to Laodicea and to us, Jesus intends to motivate us to stop compromising with the wealth and comfort that prosperity offers and to pursue and proclaim Jesus Now Laodicea was located in the Lycus Valley along with Colossae in Hierapolis. All three of these churches are mentioned in the fourth book, or the fourth chapter of Colossians. In the fourth chapter, Paul says, as he writes to the Colossians, make sure you send this letter to the church in Laodicea and the church in Hierapolis.

They were in close proximity. And of the three, Laodicea was the richest. In fact, Laodicea was the richest of all the churches, of all the cities in Asia Minor. In fact, Laodicea was the richest of all seven of these particular cities that are mentioned in chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation. In the year AD 60, a tremendous earthquake rolled through that area of the world, bringing about incredible devastation.

So much so that the city of Philadelphia got aid from the emperor in Rome, but never fully recovered. On the other hand, Laodicea was so rich that it refused any help from the emperor or the Roman government. Some of its wealthy citizens funded the construction or reconstruction of such public structures as a stadium, a gymnasium. Get this, in the ancient world, a heated and covered walkway.

They built baths and massive new city gates and towers. Laodicea was a prominent commercial banking center, a place of unparalleled economic opportunity. And within that city was a band of Jesus' disciples who had been seduced by that economic opportunity. What has to happen to keep us from compromising with the wealth and the comfort promised by prosperity and to pursue and proclaim Christ?

Three things. Here they are. We need to hear the Lord of the congregation. We need to see the Lord of the congregation. And we need to change for the Lord of the congregation. if we're not going to be caught up by the comfort and the seduction of prosperity and continue to proclaim and pursue to Jesus, those are the three things we need to do. Okay?

We need to hear the Lord of the congregation. We need to see the Lord of the congregation. We need to change for the Lord of the congregation. First of all, we need to hear the Lord of the congregation. Here is words of analysis. He says, you are lukewarm and nauseating.

I just want to spit you out of my mouth. That's what he says to this church. It's a lukewarm congregation. Now, I want you to listen carefully. Some of you, in fact, probably most of you are ready to just say, okay, let's get on with the other stuff. I already know this part.

But I think we've misunderstood this part of this message. Jesus does not mean, I wish you were really devoted to me, or I wish you were really opposed to me. I wish you were hot, or I wish you were cold. But since you're neither, you're lukewarm, I want to spit you out. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying, I wish you were really for me, or I wish you were really against me.

Is being against Jesus ever a good thing? Is opposition to Christ a good thing? Would he want that? He can't be saying, I'd be happier if you stood against me in a vicious way. If you viciously opposed me, I think I'd be happier if that was the case. That's not what he's saying.

All right? You know, in order to understand that, we've got to get a little bit of an idea of what's going on in this city. You see, the city of Laodicea, as rich as it was, had a water problem. It had a water problem. Hierapolis, which is situated on a plateau about six miles north, had hot springs that were valued for their medicinal value. Colossae was ten miles to the east, and it was known for the cold waters that ran through there from the mountain streams to which it was close.

Laodicea, on the other hand, sat on the Lycus River, which was murky with white mud, lukewarm, nauseating, and undrinkable. They had to try to get water into the city because the water around Laodicea was just this white murky nauseating undrinkable stuff So Jesus is saying to them your church life reminds me of your water It's sickening. It's sickening.

That's what he says to this church. I don't know about you, this gives me the shivers when I even say it. As I meditated on this for two weeks and I studied through it and thought about it and tried to put it in a preachable form, the thought just kept occurring to me, oh God, I pray that we are not a church that makes you sick. Do you know that this church, this message, is the only message of the seven that doesn't have one word of commendation in it? all the rest Jesus says something good about them this one nothing that is frightening to me the question is what brings a church to such a repugnant state how do we get there well as we look at it you can see that it believed it had everything it needed in its own resources in its own riches.

God had blessed that church. That church was the recipient of great riches and resources as a church because of where it was. But it believed it had everything it needed in its resources, in its riches. This kind of church gets so comfortable... Listen, this kind of a church because of its riches gets so comfortable it has no sense of dependence on God.

You come to me and say, hey, you want to start a counseling ministry? Great. Well, we have the money. There's no obstacles. Run with it. That sounds good, doesn't it?

But our resources are the only thing we have to consider. Right? There's no seeking of God in prayer. There's no pleading with God for the success of that ministry. It's like, well, we've got the resources. Let do it Right Yeah we can do it This is especially maybe this weighs on me right now because right now we going through the budget process Alright?

Elders and the deacons are sitting down together and hammering out next year's budget. So this kind of weighs heavily on me. We got the resources for it? Good. Let's do it. Right?

But there's no sense of dependence on God. Let's seek God for His blessing on this. So, this is the kind of church that gets so comfortable because of its riches that it has no sense of dependence on God. This kind of church gets so comfortable because of its riches that it no longer pursues Jesus. That is, becoming Christ-like seems to not be part of the DNA of the church any longer.

You know, it's like the singles group, right? has enough money to go on a skiing trip every year and they go on a retreat every year and they have a great time and they talk about all kinds of things, but are they becoming more like Jesus as a result of that? Or do they just have a great ministry going on a retreat every year? Or the ministry to the Elder Forks Charter, a bus, and they all go to Branson for two days as a church group and they have a wonderful time and they come back and they give testimonies about how close they've grown together, but are they becoming more like Jesus as a result of that?

Right? We get so many resources. We do so many good things, but are we pursuing Jesus? Are we trying to be like Him? A congregation like this gets so comfortable because of its riches that it no longer proclaims Jesus. there's tons of money to send the high school kids to Thailand so they can carry water for the missionaries for two weeks right but they're not thinking about the kids on the bad part of town that need to know about Christ somehow that just doesn't occur to the church that maybe there's people in the next town over that desperately need Jesus right what takes priority?

A new sound system or a church plant? You know we get so comfortable in our riches that we do all kinds of good stuff but we not proclaiming Christ as a congregation Churches sit on hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I know of churches, seriously, I know of churches who sit on a lot of money because they're afraid of what might happen in the bad economy.

We've got to have a good cushion. instead of using that money and spending it to expand the kingdom of God. They put their trust in their riches. They got so much money, they got comfortable ministries, but are we becoming more like Jesus or are the people hearing about Him? Are we dependent upon Him? Now this man is no favorite of mine. His name is Larry Crabb, but he's written some good things and one of the things he wrote in one of his books where he talks about our goal seems to be less conformity to Christ and more of comfort in this world.

He's talking about himself as an individual, but this applies to us as a congregation. Our goal as a congregation sometimes seems to be less conformity to Christ and more comfort in this world. Listen to what he says. My own life provides me with considerable comfort, much of which I have arranged for. I find within me a frightening ability to relax in my pursuit of God when life is going well.

It sometimes seems to me that I already have what I really want, not the full riches of fellowship with God, but a close family, nice friends, enjoyable job, decent health, adequate bank account, and comfortable home. Although I prefer to think otherwise, the peaceful relaxation I sometimes feel may be more the product of temporary complacency that depends on immediate comfort than the fruit of resting in Christ's work and promise. Now he's talking as an individual, but that can be true as a congregation, right?

That can be true as a congregation. Great fellowship, got a nice building, we're comfortable, good bank account. Things are going well, there's no speed bumps. If there were, we wouldn't feel them. We're comfortable. Everything's running smoothly.

We're doing great. We're having a good time. But what? But what? You see how Jesus describes a church like this? See what he says in the last part of verse 17?

We would be tempted to look at such a church and say, wow, God really has blessed that church. And maybe He has. Don't get me wrong. Maybe that's true. Just because a church is wealthy doesn't mean that Jesus is sick of it. Alright?

But we can oftentimes look at all the things that God has blessed us with and Jesus turns around and says, no, God's not blessed that church. that church is in a wretched, pitiable state. Wretched and pitiable. You know what he says there? Don't envy that. Pity that. Pity that.

They're in a wretched state. It's not blessed, he says, but what? It's poor. It's blind to its poverty. It's blind to its shortcomings. In fact, rather than having everything it needs, this congregation, he says, is naked.

It doesn't even have the basics. Again, revelation unveils for us. Isn't this great? Keep this in mind as we go through this book. Revelation is consistently, constantly unveiling reality that is just the opposite of appearances. The appearance is well-blessed, wonderful, used of God when God is saying it's poor, wretched, pitiable, blind, naked.

That's the reality. We must be careful that the prosperity that surrounds us does not seduce us. we live in a country of unparalleled economic opportunity even in the worst of times there are nations all over the world who would say I wish our unemployment was 10% we live in a nation of unparalleled economic opportunity and yet we get seduced by it into a comfortable way of life as a congregation seduced by the whore look at Revelation 18 one of the great enemies in this book is the whore Babylon and she dangerous why notice what we see in Revelation 18 First of all look at verse 3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. Note here, two things that we have seen in these seven churches that are problems.

What are they? What have we noted? Sexual immorality and being seduced by riches. Right? That's exactly the problem with this whore. She is glorying in her immorality and in her riches. the two problems that have been singled out in these churches look at verse 7 as she glorified herself and lived in luxury so give her a like measure of torment and mourning since in her heart she says notice I sit as a queen I am no widow and mourning I shall never see and what does the church in Laodicea say look at our riches we have no need.

Echoing the words of Babylon. We must be careful that the prosperity that surrounds us does not seduce us into a comfortable kind of ministry. What Jesus finds repugnant is this superficial complacency that descends on us when our affluence turns us away from the mission of pursuing and proclaiming Christ's independence on God. Here is words of counsel then.

In verse 18, what does he say? I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. How can paupers buy anything He just got done saying to them what You are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked And then he turns around and says, here's my counsel to you, buy.

What? Wait a minute, you've just said we're poor. Now you come and you say buy. What is going on? This is not a conventional purpose because only those who cannot pay can partake. Only those who cannot pay can buy.

He echoes the words of Isaiah 55 that we just heard this morning. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. See, that's the kind of transaction God's involved in. What He's saying to them is this. Recognize your poverty.

You are not rich towards Me. You may have all these things and you may have a nice, comfortable ministry going on, but you are poor. And before you can buy to get what I have, you need to come to Me and recognize your wretched state. And as a congregation, He says, you must come to Me. and recognize you have nothing to offer, then you're in the position to buy what I've got to offer.

Right? Buy refined gold, he says. Be willing to leave your comfort behind for the sake of Christ. Suffer and be refined. Listen, a church may suffer when it chooses to use its resources to go to the kids in the bad neighborhoods. But it will refine them.

I'll tell you what, there will be a whole lot more of the youth group going overseas than there will be kids showing up to talk to their friends who need Christ. That's sad, but that has to be our willingness. We have to say we need to be willing to do the difficult things. And when you leave comfort and you say we're going to do what Christ has called us to do, you're going to suffer.

Now listen to me now. Don take this as a guilt trip about I not witnessing enough out there Alright You need to witness I not even saying you shouldn witness That not what I saying He talking to the congregation here and it responsibility to proclaim Christ and it's responsibility to do those things that may cause it to suffer. Buy gold. You know, going through suffering is when you really find true riches.

Buy white garments so that the nakedness of your shame is covered. That's a determination to leave comfort behind, to seek Christ so you're like Him, and to proclaim Christ to those who don't know Him. That will bring suffering. When you are intent on becoming like Jesus, like we said last week, it's a narrow gate and a narrow road. It's not easy. And it's not because Jesus is a hard taskmaster.

As John Piper said, it's because we live in a world that makes it hard to enjoy Jesus. We have to have a determination to leave comfort behind so that we become like Christ and we proclaim Christ. And when you do that, you'll no longer be ashamed of your nakedness. You'll have covered your nakedness and your shame. He says, buy salve for your eyes so you can see.

By not seeing that real ministry is all about Jesus, you become insensitized, anesthetized, and blind to the dangers of a comfortable church life. When Jesus isn't the center of everything, you become insensitive and you don't see the dangers of a comfortable church life. when you see real ministry as making Christ known without and within the church, then you start seeing for the first time. You start seeing for the first time.

Well, how do you begin the process of escaping this deadly trap? Well, you've got to see the Lord of the congregation, which is verse 14. How is Jesus described here? He's described himself as this. the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. He is the Amen. He's the Amen.

What's that about? I thought Amen is what we said, what we say in response to God. to God, or in response to what someone has said. An amen is a response that says, so be it, or that is true. How is it that Jesus says he's an amen? Well, here it is Jesus' name, and in fact, there's only one other place in Scripture that it's actually applied to someone, and it's God.

Isaiah 65. Turn back to Isaiah 65. And keep your thumb there, because we're going to come back there again in a few minutes. Isaiah 65, verse 15. You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth.

And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth, because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes. Now note, anyone who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of, and the word that's translated truth there is the Hebrew word amen. So bless him by the God of amen. And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of amen.

God calls himself amen there, as we would say. God is the Amen Jesus takes that name upon himself he is claiming to be God alright, don't miss that don't miss that when our JW friends want to convince us that Jesus is not God I say well what do you do with this? here is Jesus talking, and he calls himself the Amen. And the only other time that's used is of God.

So don't, you know, come on. As clear as the nose on your face, or the nose on mine. If you can't see yours. But he is the Amen. He is God. And as the Amen, he is the faithful and true witness.

Now again, just like all the other messages to the churches, He making a reference to how Jesus has revealed Himself in chapter 1 And in chapter 1 verse 5 what do we see We see this And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth. Because he's the Amen, he's the faithful and true witness. In fact, if we go back to Isaiah chapter 65, you remember how we talked several weeks ago about the people of John's day, the Jewish people didn't know Hebrew, so they had their Greek Bibles. because that was the language of the day, like America, or like English is the international language of today.

Back then it was Greek. When they turned to Isaiah 65, verse 16, and they read, because he is the God of Amen, they read, in some versions, he is the faithful God, or he is the true God. So because he's the Amen, he's the faithful and true. He's the faithful and true witness. He was faithful and true to his witness of the Father, And he was faithful and true to his mission.

Both of which cost him dearly. And then lastly, he is the origin of God's creation. As the faithful and true witness, he was the firstborn from the dead. The beginning of God's new creation. Now, I know it says here the beginning of God's creation. But I think that as John wrote this vision down, as Jesus gave it to him, I think he's making a reference not to the creation that we see.

He's making reference to that Jesus is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation. Now why do I say that? We'll turn back to Isaiah 65 again. I told you we were going to go back there and I forgot to leave my thumb there. But the theme of this verse continues in verse 17 of Isaiah 65. What does it say?

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. There's the new creation. The God who calls himself Amen, the faithful and the true, is the one who's going to create new.

Alright? And if this is a reference to chapter 1, verse 5, it called the faithful witness the firstborn from the dead A reference to the new creation So I believe John here is talking about this fulfills Isaiah Jesus is the beginning He inaugurated that new creation that God promised. Listen, do you understand this? We keep thinking God's going to create everything new in the future.

Listen, he's already started that process. He started it with Jesus. He's the first one of that realm. And He's doing it with us. What are we called in 2 Corinthians 5.17? A new creation.

What does that mean? It means that we've already begun to experience that. Okay? That new creation isn't just way out there. It started back at the resurrection of Jesus. And it continues to this day.

So when we are tempted to judge our congregation by our apparent riches, what must we do? We must see Jesus. We must see Jesus as God. The Amen. Who can see everything clearly and He makes the proper judgments. This Jesus was the faithful and true witness to His Father and to His mission no matter what suffering came His way.

That's the point we need to get from this. He's the faithful and true witness. What do you get for being faithful and true as a congregation? Suffering. Just like Jesus suffered, so we will suffer. We've got to be faithful and true as well.

Comfort was not on his agenda. All right? And through Jesus, we're part of this new creation. And so we have the power to escape the seduction of prosperity and suffer in our pursuit of Jesus and our proclamation of Him. We've got to see Jesus because the way He is is the way we ought to be. And what He says counts, not what we think and not what we feel.

Well, if the Rue Baptist Church would not compromise with the wealth and comfort offered by prosperity and continue to pursue and proclaim Jesus, then we have to change for the Lord of the congregation. We have to change. beginning in verse 19 he says this those whom I love I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent We must repent Why should we repent? You know why we should repent?

Because Jesus loves us. Now, I think those words are put there on purpose. those whom I love I reprove and disavow. Why does he say that? Because man after getting hit like this you start to wonder if Jesus really loves you or not. Jesus really loves this church. He does love this church.

If he didn't love it he wouldn't have said anything to the congregation. I remember how I felt often times when my dad would say difficult things to me. When I'd do something and some of the things that he would do. I mean, you know, I got my share of spankings. One of the things that used to cut me to the heart was when he would say, I'm really disappointed in you.

I'm really disappointed in you. Of course, I would say, oh my, my father's disappointed. I should change. What I would typically think was, he doesn't love me. What does he think I am? Just a hunk of junk, right?

What does he think I am? And I'd swirl in this poor, pitiful me, you know, sitting in the garden eating worms, as my dad used to say. Right? You remember that saying? I forgot how it goes now. Sitting in the garden eating worms, you know.

I feel so sorry for myself. I've been treated so badly. When in fact what he was doing was expressing his love by saying difficult things. And that's what Jesus says. When he says difficult things to us, our response should not be, oh man, we're worthless. Oh no, we might as well just give up.

Let's just close the doors. We ought to say, oh man, Jesus loved us enough to tell us this. We need to repent and always remember. Listen now. Repentance only happens when there's hope. The law of God brings conviction, but the law of God telling you what you're doing wrong will never bring repentance.

It brings conviction. What moves me from conviction to repentance when I'm sure that God loves me? Then I'll move to repentance. And he says, listen, you need to repent. I love you. Repent.

And along with that repent ought to come zeal. He says, be zealous and repent. It's interesting to me how when we get comfortable, we get lazy. We get lethargic. Comfort always brings that, doesn't it? Right?

Let me ask you, when you're on vacation and you're just sitting on the beach, is that when you're really motivated to do stuff? No. I can remember my first year in Romania. This is the only example I could think of as I was in two weeks. This is the only example I could think of, all right? I remember the first time I was in Romania.

It's our first weekend. I have never, ever been in a foreign country like this, right? I mean, I am a newbie to the max. and we're sitting there in this room with these pastors and we're deciding how we're going to be divided. One guy is going to go with Dave and spend the weekend with him. The other guy is going to go with some pastors to some village church in Romania and spend the weekend there.

The thought terrified me. I'm going to be in a foreign country. no one speaks my language, I'm going to be off by myself with these strange people who don't even know how to talk. Right? And I got that assignment. I mean, it was like no comfort zone at all. None.

You know what? That was invigorating. I was it's like that whole weekend is like Jesus I don't know what I'm going to do here I have no idea I don't know these people's customs you know what if I walk in the door and I do something stupid am I going to offend these people first thing I found out as I'm traipsing around their house is everybody takes their shoes off I didn't know that I'm thinking oh I just blew it and they're feeding me stuff and I'm going oh man but you know what it like you totally out there and it like okay God I don know what I doing I have no idea what going on That was invigorating.

I mean, man, you just get charged up. In a sense, that's what a congregation needs to experience. Not the comfort that its resources bring, but recognizing its absolute dependence on God and taking risks. taking risks and saying, we've got to be pursuing Jesus, we've got to be proclaiming Jesus, we've got to do it in dependence on God. What are we going to do that only God can accomplish?

Wow, that's life-giving. All right? So the first thing we have to do is repent with this kind of zeal that comes from not pursuing comfort. We have to pursue enduring fellowship. Verse 20. Please look at verse 20.

Everybody look at verse 20 and everybody listen carefully. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. He's talking about enduring fellowship with Jesus. Do not misunderstand this picture. Jesus is not some homeless traveler knocking on the door of a locked heart saying, please let me in.

That is not what this verse is saying. This verse is not saying, please let Jesus into your heart. He's knocking on the door. Won't you please open? I heard that verse preached like that so many times. That's not what it's saying.

You know what it's saying? The master of the house has been locked out. The master of the congregation has been locked out of the church. and he's rapping on the door saying, let me in. That's what's going on. You see, when we seek comfort in our resources, who gets left out? Jesus does.

And so he says, open the door of the congregation. Open the door for fellowship with Jesus rather than pursuing your comfort and your riches. By pursuing comfort of riches, you have left me out You locked me out Now the Master at the door saying let me in And notice this it not let me in because you in big trouble It let me in so we can eat together Now what he means by that is he's talking about the most intimate kind of fellowship you can have.

Eating with one another, sitting at table with one another was an expression of close, intimate relationships. All right? But I do notice this. He does say this. If anyone will open the door, okay, and let me in, I will eat with him and he will eat with me. There is an individual responsibility here.

Do you know where congregational transformation starts to take place? With individuals. With individuals. And so each one of us in this congregation have a responsibility to hear the Lord of the congregation and pursue fellowship with Him. As more and more do that, the congregation is transformed. The congregation begins to change as individuals begin to pursue and proclaim Christ.

What's another thing we have to do? We have to conquer. we have to conquer verse 21 the one who conquers I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne how do we conquer it's right there just like Jesus conquered how did Jesus conquer again here's revelation I love this about this book this is just what's really firing me up about this study is that revelation shows us the reality and the reality is not what appearances are. How did Jesus conquer?

He was a victim nailed to a cross. To the world, He looked like what? Loser. To God, what was He? Conqueror. Conqueror.

And so He says to you, you conquer through suffering. To us, conquerors appear comfortable. They overcome all the obstacles and are now what Living a good life There the conqueror Wrong Wrong Jesus conquered by disdaining comfort and choosing suffering. That must be the way we operate. That must be the way we operate. Jesus conquered by disdaining comfort and choosing suffering.

Hebrews 12, verse 2. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So must we. Leaving the comfort that our resources produce, the congregation must willingly suffer as a faithful and true witness and receive the same reward that Jesus did.

You know what? There's going to be a lot of surprises on Judgment Day. And you know what? As one of the leaders of this congregation, I do not want this congregation to be surprised on Judgment Day. There's going to be a lot of wealthy, well-heeled, seemingly successful ministries They're going to prove themselves to be nothing more than great disappointments to Christ.

That could be us as well. You say, we're not rich. Listen, let me tell you something. This congregation, when compared to most in the world, is fabulously rich. And we can get very comfortable. And we can get the ministries that are going.

And we say, wow, what a successful ministry. What do you mean by success? Well, man, we go on a retreat every year and we have a great time. Right? What are we doing as a congregation to proclaim Christ? Are we pursuing Him?

Are we proclaiming Him? Are we crying out in dependence upon God? Or are we just having a good time? I'm starting to fear that, folks. I'm starting to fear that. That we're having a great ministry.

And by that we mean that we're all getting along. We're having a great time. There's nothing wrong with that, alright? But is it producing Christ-likeness? Is it producing a congregation who calls on Christ? in the name of Jesus. What's the last thing he mentions?

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. We've got to take this seriously. We've got to take this seriously. Now look, Jesus loves his church. In fact, he loves each congregation enough to tell each one what it needs to do to change. That's what he's done in these seven messages.

How can we tell if Jesus is satisfied with our ministry or sickened by it? How are we going to tell? I think here's some checkpoints we need. We need to ask if we are trusting in our resources rather than Jesus. Are we expressing an attitude of dependence in everything that we do? are we crying out to God to use this in a transforming way? Do we have an attitude of dependence?

Have our riches produce ministries that are comfortable and fun rather than ministries that challenge us to Christ likeness and ministries that challenge others to believe in him And if we see any of this are we willing as a congregation to repent and pursue Jesus Will we pursue conquest through suffering or will we avoid suffering and pursue comfort? I think those are the questions that we need to be asking. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Jesus is serious about this. So should we. We must always be asking this question. Has prosperity seduced us to comfort? or are we willing to serve Jesus and his mission? Father, these are difficult words. Oh Lord, I pray we have not taken them lightly.

Father you know this congregation Lord Jesus you know this congregation If there are the seeds of this in our midst help us to eradicate them before they even have the chance to take root. Lord, if the fruit is here, help us to repent and destroy it. All of us here, Father, can think of ways in which we become comfortable because we're prosperous. We haven't been asked to do things.

We're not challenged too often. God, help us now. Start looking for challenges. Of pursuing Christ and proclaiming him in dependence upon you. Father I'm not sure I'm not sure how we'd go about all that and yet we are confident that as we come to you in dependence you will reveal to us and you will help us because you love us, you love this church, you love this congregation you reveal those things to us but Father you reveal them to us if we seek You out and ask Help us to do that.

Lord, I'm asking for the congregation now that You'd help us to do that. Father, I pray that as individuals in this congregation we'd start seeking You and asking You for that. Grant it, we pray. Lord God, we do not want a ministry that sickens our Lord Jesus. We want a ministry that glorifies His name. Father, all seven of these messages to these churches have been instructive to us.

Give us ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches for Your glory and Your glory alone. Amen.